


Cradle and All

by Etaleah



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale's Bookshop (Good Omens), Baby, Babysitting, Best Friends, Bonding, Caring Aziraphale (Good Omens), Caring Crowley (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley Loves Kids (Good Omens), Crowley has Trauma from the Fall (Good Omens), Crowley is Good With Kids (Good Omens), Cute Kids, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Don't copy to another site, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Foster Care, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Kindness, Laughter, Love, Lullabies, Minor Original Character(s), No Plot/Plotless, One Big Happy Family, One Shot, POV Aziraphale (Good Omens), Protective Crowley (Good Omens), Soft Aziraphale (Good Omens), Soft Crowley (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etaleah/pseuds/Etaleah
Summary: Aziraphale fosters a recently orphaned baby girl and is surprised to see just how good Crowley can be with kids.
Relationships: Aziraphale & Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 146





	Cradle and All

"Whee!" Aziraphale squealed, spinning around and around with a baby in his arms. "You're an aeroplane! You're a bird! You're a superhero!"

"You're ridiculous," Crowley commented from his usual spot on the couch. "You sound utterly _absurd._ "

Aziraphale ignored him, grinning madly. "Now you're a rocket! BOOM!"

"Ugh." Crowley shook his head.

Walking through London that morning, they had heard a crash around the corner. Aziraphale had rushed to see what had happened and had been heartbroken to see the wreckage of a car accident involving said baby and both her parents. He had rushed to scoop her out, soothing her and drying her tears while he miracled away the memory. She was unharmed, thankfully, but the poor little girl was now an orphan, and Aziraphale had insisted on staying with her.

 _"_ _We can't just leave her here," he said, lifting her from her car seat and holding her to his chest. Let's at least make sure she's looked after until we know another human is caring for her._

As it turned out, the girl's name was Brailee and she had many loving relatives, all of whom were eager to take her in, but none of them lived anywhere near London. Authorities had been wringing their hands at what to do with her in the meantime, trying to figure out which child services agency could take on a baby without warning. Through a series of miracles on Aziraphale's part, he suddenly had a decade's worth of childcare credentials and was a recognizably distinguished figure in the field of social services. Ergo, he had wound up fostering Brailee until her new guardians arrived in the next few days. Now she was babbling with them in the bookshop, where Aziraphale bounced her up and down in his arms and had far too much fun with her.

"Up! Down! Up! Down!" he squealed as he lifted and lowered her in his arms. She shrieked with laughter, and he laughed too, swinging her around and bringing her close for kisses to the cheek. She giggled and he smiled with pride.

Aziraphale had always loved babies. They were so silly and fun and curious about the world. He could spend an entire day playing peekaboo, rolling a ball back and forth, pushing them in the stroller, or just bouncing them in his arms as he took them around the shop, pointing out this and that like a tour guide and talking to them. He did so now, carrying Brailee around his shop and talking to her about books.

Crowley watched from the couch and gagged.

"Yes, please continue explaining the intricacies of Shakespeare to an eight-month-old," he mumbled. "I'm sure she'll understand every word and remember it all her life."

"It's never too early to start a love of literature!" Aziraphale said. "Isn't that right?" he cooed in a baby voice, bouncing her higher. "Don't you love all the pretty books? Yes, you do! Yes, you do!"

"No she doesn't, no she doesn't," Crowley muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Hmph!" Aziraphale held Brailee close and turned away. "Well then. She and I will just go into my back room and read a bedtime story without you then."

* * *

As he finished putting Brailee down for the night and settled into bed himself, Aziraphale couldn't help wonder why Crowley had acted so sour toward the baby. He liked being around kids even if he insisted he didn't. His face practically lit up whenever a toddler or preschooler took interest in them, and there was nothing he loved more than getting snarky with teenagers.

 _Perhaps babies are simply too pure,_ Aziraphale thought smugly. It would indeed be difficult to tempt such an innocent being into wickedness. Poor Crowley was out of his depth with this one.

"Still," he said to himself. "Innocent and fun as they are, babies are quite a bit of bother. Suppose I'm glad for a break now." He pushed up his glasses, got comfy under the covers of his bed, and began to read.

Sometime later, he was startled out of his book by a wail. Brailee was awake and crying loudly enough to be heard down the hall.

Aziraphale sighed. "Oh, dear. And it was just getting to the good part," he said, woefully laying his book aside. "All right, all right, darling. I'll be right there." He started down the hall toward her room when he heard another voice.

"Hey, hey, come on now. No need for any of that."

Aziraphale stopped. _Crowley?_ Was he still here? After Aziraphale had left him to read to Brailee, he had assumed his friend had gone home.

A light switched on in the room. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Probably hungry, aren't you?" She must not have been because a minute later, Aziraphale heard the sound of a bottle being knocked over and a more intense wail.

"Okay, okay. Not hungry. Nappy change, then?" A sniffing sound. "Hmm, nope. Well then, you're just crying for no good reason, huh?"

Aziraphale moved closer to the door to peek in. Crowley was standing over the crib watching Brailee with an amused expression as tears covered her red face. _She's probably still tired and cranky at having woken up,_ Aziraphale thought.

"Well, you know what I think of that?" Crowley asked. He then morphed into a cartoonish face and gagged exaggeratedly.

 _What the hell is he—oh._ Brailee stopped sobbing. She looked up at him curiously.

"Oh, you like that, eh? How 'bout this one?" He twisted his face into an even more cartoonish expression and groaned comically.

"Heh, heh, heh," she giggled, beginning to smile.

Crowley kept going, making the expression funnier and more outlandish each time. "Buuhh!" he moaned, sticking his tongue out and scrunching up his eyes and nose before turning his head sideways. "Ayeee!"

Brailee burst out laughing, all traces of tears gone. He made more funny faces and she laughed harder and louder at each one until she began to bounce and hold out her arms. "Up! Up!"

"All right, but you should probably get to sleep now that you've stopped crying. C'mere." He picked her up, letting her head rest on his shoulder and rocking her in his arms.

Aziraphale put his hand on the door, ready to burst in with a teasing smirk. He would never let Crowley hear the end of this one. He would get years of mileage out of it. He would—

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop." Crowley was singing in a softer voice than Aziraphale had ever heard from him. He held the baby and rocked from side to side.

"When the wind blows, the cradle will…" He stopped. Swallowed. Took a shaky breath. Aziraphale leaned forward and noticed Crowley tighten his hold on the little girl, hugging her rather than just holding her.

He sang again, quieter. "When the wind blows, the cradle will fall. But Crowley will catch you, cradle and all."

Aziraphale could feel his eyes welling up as Brailee yawned and Crowley stroked her back. "Good girl," he murmured, very gently. "You're a good girl. Sweet girl." He kissed her head and carefully laid her down in her crib. Instead of leaving, he rested his arms on the bars and watched her tiny chest rise and fall, a love in his eyes that was rare to see.

Aziraphale lifted his hand off the doorknob and took a few quiet steps back.

Dear Crowley already insisted on hiding the most beautiful part of himself, and Aziraphale was damned if he was going to make him afraid to show it even in quiet moments like this. He watched Crowley and the baby with love swelling in his chest.

When Crowley reluctantly took his hands off the crib and turned out the light, Aziraphale hurried away and pretended he hadn't seen a thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Credit goes to my mom for Crowley's little addition to the song! :D


End file.
